Although I love yanking on big fish, and
who doesn't, I never thought about going
for rockfish. Until Gabe convinced me otherwise.
This past week I came to La Jolla for yellows armed
with a jig stick, squid rigs--and a rockfish setup--
just in case.
Gabe showed me some random spots that he believed
were set in stone on his hand-helded gps. Funny, cause
his waypoints, mobs, and tracking data seemed to move
everytime we did.
I resorted to my halibut fishing methods from dana: hit
potential spot-after-spot until I get bit. And, it worked.
I promised Chef T, I'd share a Greek Rockfish soup recipe, called
Kakavia, that is, The Fisherman's Catch Stew. This stew
originated from the ancient Greek fisherman as they colonizied
the Mediterranean (the French stole the recipe and called
it Bouillabasisse).
Kakavia is actually a three legged clay pot that sits in the
middle of fisherman's boat. Whatever got caught was thrown
in, accompanied with vegies, and eaten with bread. Often
times cooked with seawater.
Unlike traditional French cooking, Greek cooks don't create a
fish stock first and then create a soup next. We just get it
done all at once.
Recipe for the Soup (enough soup for a few Greeks)
--2 bottles of dry white wine
--14 cups of water
--1 cup vinegar
--2 large lemons
--large bundle of celery
--2 large onions
--8 large carrots
--8 potatoes
--salt/pepper
--big pinch of saffron
--6 rockfish
--2lbs baby octopus (store bought)
Chop up the vegies, throw into pot of cold water. Gut, scale,
and gill the fish, then throw them in too. Add seasonings.
Bring to a boil, then remove fish and allow to cool for handling.
Allow soup to simmer for another hour.
By now, the fish meat has cooled. Remove as much of the meat
and skin as possible. Throw it in along with the baby octopus,
cook only for 5 minutes more and serve.
Since the French stole from us, I too steel from the French. I
serve this soup with crunchy toasted bread and a French roasted
red pepper, garlic spread called Rouie (sp?).
Rouie
--Roast 2 large red peppers until the skin is blackened, remove skin
--6 cloves of strong garlic
--the juice of a 1/2 lemon
--1/2 cup of bread crumbs
--salt/pepper
Whip this stuff up in the food processor and place in a bowl. Then
spread all over your bread. Beware, very garlicy. Be sure and have
your mate eat this stuff with you. Because after you eat a bowl of
this potent Greek Kavavia, you'll attack anything.
